How Sam Allardyce had a 'life-changing' experience at the Tampa Bay Rowdies

Sam Allardyce, recently named England manager, has Rowdies ties...
 
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How Sam Allardyce had a 'life-changing' experience at the Tampa Bay Rowdies

By Bob Williams

21 July 2016 • 4:39pm

Sam Allardyce played just 11 matches for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the summer of 1983 but he has described his brief time there as "life-changing".

On the field, the experience of playing in the North American Soccer League did not yield any success for the burly centre-back as he struggled to cope with the blazing-hot Florida sunshine in a Rowdies team long since past their best.

However, the Rowdies' access to the high-tech facilities used by the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers completely transformed his outlook on the game.

It was at Bolton Wanderers where Allardyce became well known for embracing statistical tools such as ProZone - and his appreciation of sports science can be traced back to his spell at the Rowdies.

Or, in other words, Uncle Sam gave Big Sam a big helping hand on his long journey to the England job.

“We had access to all the Bucs’ backroom staff and their training facilities. The way they prepared during the week opened my eyes and was... one of those life-changing experiences," Allardyce recalled in his autobiography Big Sam.

“I learned there was so much more to conditioning than what we did in England where you had a run around in training, a game of five-a-side, steak for a pre-match meal, a shot of whisky from the skip on the way out on to the pitch and a couple of pints in the bar afterwards.

. . .

Mike Connell, Allardyce's centre-back partner at the Rowdies, says the facilities the players had access to in the early Eighties were a "different world" compared to those in the English game at the time.

He adds that Allardyce - who was described by another former team-mate as having "no touch whatsover but was a monster in the air" - showed impressive leadership and educational qualities and was in the perfect environment to nurture any nascent coaching ambitions.

"We were having a rough year and Sam came mid-season. At that point the club had gone through a transformation from being a mostly British team to a German/South American-style team, so he was one of few Englishmen who came in that period. In fact, he may have been the only English player in that year at the Rowdies," Connell told The Telegraph.

"He was a central defender, as I was. We were going through a horrible time as far as trying to stay in games and when Sam came, I was glad to see a British player next to me but he gave us some character, as he was big and tough and strong. He took no c--p.